The Burglar
by DRL
Summary: Duo's home has been burgled, but all is not what it seems


The Burglar

By DRL

Hilde parted the slats of the Venetian blinds that hung in the windows of her sitting room, ostensibly to obscure the view of any passers-by who might be curious enough to cast their eyes from the path ahead towards her window, but which just as effectively obscured her view of the world beyond the hallowed sanctum of her suburban semi. She peered out from behind the parted slats and watched the man as he stood outside Duo's house. It was only with the mildest curiosity that she watched him stoop to peer into the letterbox. She wondered idly whether she ought to pop across and let him know that Duo was not at home, but she thought better of it. She was due at her yoga class in ten minutes and she had to get herself ready, and anyway, he would arrive at that conclusion by himself in due course. As she turned away from the window she saw the man straighten up and make his way round to the back of the house.

Hilde made it to her yoga class on time and afterwards treated herself, first to a session in the sauna, then to a relaxing massage. Afterward, feeling thoroughly pampered, she went home. The first thing she did on re-entering her house was to dump her capacious tote bag onto the hall floor, retrieve a set of keys from the hall table, then turn around and immediately leave the house once again. She quickly crossed the narrow street, looking both ways first because Hilde was nothing if not safety-conscious, and pushed open the front gate of the house directly opposite. She walked up the path and let herself in with the keys Duo had given her.

She went straight to the kitchen after pausing to retrieve a bundle of letters from the floor and deposit them on a console table in the hall. This was not the first time she had been entrusted with the task of feeding Duo's cat while he was away and as she always did, she took her duties very seriously. One pouch of premium-grade cat food, with a handful of biscuits sprinkled over the top ('and remember to chop it up small Hil, 'cos Angus doesn't like it when it's all chunky'). This veritable feast was served once at 10.00am and again at 6.00pm, every day. Hilde had never actually set eyes on the fabled Angus but the food dish was always empty whenever she appeared to fill it, so she assumed that Angus must be more than a figment of Duo's fertile imagination.

She prepared Angus's meal and put the dish down onto a cat-shaped mat situated in a corner of the room. Then she quickly rinsed Angus's breakfast dish from that morning, and the fork with which she had 'chopped it up small' (white plastic, with broad, flattened tines and the head of a cat at the end of the handle), placed both onto the draining board ready for the next day's meals, and left the kitchen, heading for the front door.

The door to the back reception room that Duo used as a study-cum-library (Hilde used hers as a dance-studio where she practiced her art), was open and as she glanced in and caught sight of a wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling book-case, its shelves crammed to bursting with books, she hesitated, then went in. She had been inside this room many times before and she knew that Duo kept books on a vast range of subjects. She also knew that the collection was his pride and joy and although the books appeared to have been thrust into the bookcase in a most haphazard fashion, she also knew that Duo worked an extremely comprehensive and thoroughly efficient cataloguing system that allowed him to lay his hands on any book he wanted within seconds. She was expecting a gentleman caller (she felt herself blush as she thought of the young man she was to entertain the following evening) and she needed a vegetarian cookbook, for Gustav, the new male lead from her dance company, consumed no meat. She was not as _au fait_ with Duo's cataloguing system as he was himself, so she contented herself with merely scanning the shelves until she came across the book she wanted. As she cast a leisurely eye across the rows of shelves she felt a sudden and inexplicable draught about her bare midriff. She was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, the hem of the t-shirt being a few inches shy of the waistband of the jeans, resulting in an exposed strip of lean flesh betwixt the two. This gust of cool air, coming unexpectedly as it did, caused her to look around in search of a possible source, and as she did so she saw something that caused her to gasp audibly in alarm.

'Remind me again why we are doing this?" Asked Special Duties Officer Heero Yuy as he retrieved his jacket from the back of his chair and slipped it on.

"Because we need to develop our interpersonal skills." Replied Special Duties Officer Wufei Chang as he did the same. Officer Yuy froze in mid-action and frowned at his partner.

"And what exactly does that mean?" He asked.

"It means that we have to learn how to talk nicely to people," Officer Chang answered, "Or rather **_you_** have to learn. I just get tarred with the same brush because I happen to have drawn the short straw and ended up with you as a partner, Mr Congeniality." He added sourly. "Anyway, come on – let's get this over with. It's only a suspected break-in. How hard can it be?"

Officers Yuy and Chang wove through the city traffic to the leafy suburbs and pulled up outside a neat house situated in a pleasant, tree-lined avenue. The sun shone warmly, the birds sang in the silver birches that lined the street, and it was difficult to imagine crime of any kind occurring in such a tranquil spot. However, according to Ms Hilde Schbeiker, that was exactly what had apparently happened. After double-checking the address they were given for Ms Schbeiker, the two men got out of their car and, opening the gate, walked up the crazy-paved path and pressed the doorbell.

"Since your bad attitude is the reason we have been re-assigned to these 'light duties', Officer Chang said, emphasising the last two words, "You can do the talking; I'll take notes."

Before Officer Yuy could voice the objection that sprang to his lips, the door was opened by a young woman. She was petite and trim, and wore her black hair cropped short. She looked from one man to the other with a suspicious frown.

"Ms Schbeiker?" Office Yuy asked, shooting a menacing sidelong glance at this partner. "You put in a call about an intruder?"

"You guys are the police?" The young woman said, her expression softening into one of pleasant surprise. "I didn't expect you to be so… young." She concluded, but the pause clearly indicated that this had not been what she had intended to say, although the appreciative way in which she looked them up and down offered a clue to what her original thoughts might have been.

"Could you tell us what you saw Ms Schbeiker?" Asked Officer Yuy.

"Oh I can do better than that," She said before quickly diving back into the house for a moment, and re-emerging jingling a set of keys, "I can show you." She let them back down the path and across the road to Duo's house.

"You see, I went over to feed Angus, that's Duo's cat, then I remembered I needed a vegetarian cookbook, so I went into the library, and that's when I saw it. I kinda felt a draught, you know, and I looked around to see where it was coming from, and there it was." Hilde kept up this commentary as she opened the door and let the two officers into the house, leading them to the library. "There!" She exclaimed in triumph and pointed an accusatory finger at a fine pair of French doors.

The doors were of a type that consisted of horizontal and vertical Georgian bars forming neat, even squares, glazed with panes of clear glass. The doors were firmly closed, but one of the panes of glass was missing, leaving a tidy aperture in the door, which did indeed allow a fresh breeze to waft into the room. The key of the door was seated in the lock, and the missing pane would allow anyone to reach in and easily turn the key. Sighing at the unparalleled stupidity of the general public, Officer Chang immediately dropped to one knee before the broken pane and began a minute inspection of the door and the surrounding area, while Officer Yuy continued to question Hilde.

"What did you do when you found the broken window Ms Schbeiker," He asked her, did you touch it in any way?"

"Hell no!" Hilde said emphatically. "I got the hell out of here and called you guys."

"Quite so." Officer Yuy said. "You didn't examine the rest of the house to see whether anything had been disturbed?" He asked. Hilde gave him a withering look.

"Like I said," She replied, "I just got out of there. What if the guy was still in the house somewhere?" She shuddered at the though. "I figured I'd just let you guys deal with it. That's what we pay our taxes for isn't it?" She added in an undertone. With an effort Officer Yuy bit back the scathing retort that sprang to his lips as he recalled why it was that he, a trained and experienced special duties officer, was answering a 'suspected intruder' call.

"Quite so." He said. "Now Ms Schbeiker, can you describe the man you saw earlier today?"

"Well, I don't know," Hilde said uncertainly, "He was just a regular guy."

"...Just... a... regular... guy..." Officer Chang repeated in a voluble murmur as he scribbled in a small notebook. Officer Yuy gave him a dark look and continued his questioning.

"Can you tell me what he was wearing?" He asked.

"No..., not really." Hilde replied. "You know I really didn't take much notice of him, although I would have done if I'd known he was going to bust his way in here." Office Yuy sighed exasperatedly.

"Okay Ms Schbeiker," He said, "Was the man tall or short?"

"Tallish." Hilde said decisively.

"You mean like my height?"

"No, I said **_tallish_**."

Officer Yuy pursed his lips with suppressed indignation as Officer Chang stifled a guffaw and wrote.

"...tallish..." He enunciated deliberately. Officer Yuy shot him a look even darker than the last.

"Was his hair light or dark?" Officer Yuy asked.

"I couldn't see his hair." Hilde replied. "He had on a cap."

"...a cap..." Officer Chang wrote assiduously.

"What colour was the cap," Hilde began to shake her head and Officer Yuy prompted, "Was it light or dark?"

"Darkish."

"And was he wearing a shirt?"

"Yeah, I guess. I think it was bluish."

"...bluish..."

"Yeah, and I think he was carrying something. A bag I think."

"A bag." Officer Yuy said flatly. "Was it a large bag or a small bag?" He asked, but with a distinct lack of enthusiasm.

"Umm..., largish." Hilde replied. Officer Yuy sighed heavily and nodded resignedly.

"...large... ish..." Officer Chang pronounced with satisfaction as he completed his notes with a final emphatic flourish.

"Thank-you Ms Schbeiker, that was most helpful." Officer Yuy said. "Now, are you able to say whether anything has been disturbed?" Hilde looked around the room.

"I don't think so, but I couldn't really say. I mean, this isn't my house."

Officer Yuy nodded. He walked slowly around the room and listened as his partner put in a call for a fingerprint unit to attend the scene. He stopped at one of the many bookcases in the room. This particular case held a set of leather bound books that were quite shallow and the remainder of the dept of one of the shelves was taken up by a row of framed photographs. The photographs all featured the same person, a young man - sometimes alone, sometimes with others, and once with his arms about the neck of a large border collie. The youth had an open countenance, warm and friendly, with a broad, full, smile and bright, expressive eyes. He also had, Officer Yuy was surprised to see, extremely long hair that he wore in a braid. In most of the pictures the braid could not be seen, but in one or two it had worked its way forward and hung quite to the young mans waist. His hair was a deep shade of chestnut-brown, and Officer Yuy found himself leaning forward to peer closely at the largest of the photographs to see if he could see the colour of the young mans eyes.

"That's him, that's Duo Maxwell – the guy who owns this house." The voice at his elbow caused Officer Yuy to start. He straightened up and looked round at Hilde Schbeiker.

"This is Mr Maxwell?" Officer Yuy jerked his head towards the photographs.

"Yeah," Hilde replied, "I think he's really hot, but sadly I don't have the, er... equipment to interest him, if you know what I mean." She tapped her nose knowingly. "You might though." She added, looking Officer Yuy up and down, mostly down. The Special Duties Officer drew his jacket closer about him and cleared his throat.

"Ms Schbeiker, thank-you for your help here. You can go on home now. Officer Chang and I will take it from here." They ushered her out of the house and went up the stairs to check the upper floor for signs of the intruder. So far they had failed to find any.

"'Was he wearing a shirt..'" Officer Chang said mockingly as he followed his partner up the staircase, "God you do ask the most ridiculous quest..."

"Oh shit!"

Officer Chang was checked by the expletive uttered by his partner as the two men entered a room that was clearly a bedroom. The officers assumed this because of the presence of a bed, but the scene was one of utter devastation. The room contained a large bed, a chest of drawers and an enormous wardrobe, but the bed appeared to be piled with most of the contents of the other two furniture pieces. Three of the four drawers of the chest had been removed and the contents tipped out onto the bed, the drawers themselves having been carelessly tossed to one side. The fourth drawer had been opened, but still remained on its runners. Its contents had obviously been thoroughly riffled, but they remained largely inside the drawer, although some items hung out over the sides. The wardrobe doors stood open and it was clear that a thorough search had been undertaken here also. Clothes had been pulled from their hangers and thrown onto the pile on the bed and shoes and boots were strewn across the hardwood floor.

Officer Yuy's heart sank at the though of that nice young man in the photograph coming home from his trip to find this waiting for him. He looked across at his partner.

"Get that team up here now." He barked, and Officer Chang disappeared back down the stairs.

Officer Heero Yuy was at the airport when Duo Maxwell's flight landed. This was, strictly speaking, above and beyond the call of Heero's duties, but his presence at the airport had nothing whatsoever to do with his duties. Oh he had used (and technically abused) his Special Duties Officer rank and flashed his badge shamelessly to gain the necessary access until he stood at the boarding gate waiting for Duo to disembark, but his reasons for being here were purely personal.

In the five days since Heero and Wufei had answered Hilde Schbeiker's intruder call, Heero had not been able to rid his mind of the happy, smiling face of a certain braided young man whom he had only ever seen in a few photographs found at a crime scene. Duo Maxwell's face haunted his waking hours as he went about his daily routine, and his nightly dreams as he fitfully slept, until he was convinced he had developed an honest-to-goodness obsession. As he watched the aircraft complete its final taxi to the gate he recalled that impossible woman Hilde Schbeiker looking pointedly at his crotch and saying that he might interest Duo Maxwell. He had taken her meaning perfectly well and he hoped that it was true. Although he felt like a complete heel for doing it, he had taken the precaution of running Maxwell's details to make sure that he didn't have a record, so there was no potential impediment. All he had to do was to make himself agreeable and this, he knew, was the big problem. Although he grumbled about it incessantly, he knew that it was not for nothing that he had been reassigned.

A sharply uniformed stewardess escorted Duo Maxwell to where Heero waited. Heero had arranged for a message to be sent to the aircraft captain, but the crew were warned to say nothing to Duo about the situation at home, merely to conduct him to the waiting officer. Considering the circumstances, Heero was surprised to see the braided young man approach him with the open, guileless expression of the totally innocent. Heero, a seasoned officer despite his relative youth, was well used to trepidation, guilt and even fear when individuals were brought to him for questioning, but not this innocent warmth. He usually watched his interviewees' worried frowns with cold amusement as they cast about in their befuddled minds for which of their past transgressions had finally caught up with them. Duo Maxwell merely grinned at him, showing pearl white, perfectly even teeth and said,

"Hi there. You wanted to see me sir?" as he looked at Heero with clear, steady violet, they were violet, eyes. Beautiful violet eyes.

Heero felt humbled. He and this young man were probably the same age, yet Maxwell had called him 'sir' and his air of respectful deference was unmistakable. He looked at the man before him, finally perceiving in the flesh the face that had haunted his dreams for days. He took in Duo's fresh, creamy complexion, his casual jeans, t-shirt, denim jacket and boots, his wonderful violet eyes and, of course, his impossibly long braid of chestnut hair. The braid had fallen forward and lay against Maxwell's chest as it had in the photographs, in full view of Heero's rapt gaze, a knotted rope of shimmering silk, twisted strands of beautiful gossamer...

"Sir?" Duo Maxwell said again, looking expectantly at him. Jerked from his reverie, Heero focussed his glazed blue eyes onto Duo's. "The stewardess said you wanted to talk to me about something?"

"Er, yes..." Heero cleared his throat. "Yes. I'm afraid I have some rather bad news." Only then did Duo's grin falter and the glint in his eyes fade.

Heartily sorry to have been the one to dash the cup of happiness from the young man's lips, Heero gave him a brief outline of what had happened while Duo collected his baggage, being deliberately economical with the details, then led him to his car. As Heero drove Duo to his house the young man kept up a litany of conversation about himself and his recent trip. Heero was gratified to find him singularly unperturbed by the news of what had occurred in his absence, but he put this down to the fact that the young man had not yet seen the devastation that had once been his bedroom. When they arrived at the house Duo let them both in with his latchkey and Heero led him to the library and the broken window pane. Maxwell took one look at the pane and turned to him with a weak, contrite smile.

"Oh yeah," He said, "I guess I should have had that repaired before I left, but you know how it is, you're always in such a rush and you never get round to doing stuff..."

"You mean you knew about this?" Heero asked with a frown.

"Sure." Maxwell replied. "You see, I was outside raking leaves and I accidentally hit the window with the handle of the rake." He turned apologetic eyes to Heero. "I vacuumed up the glass inside." He offered, as if this might somehow soften the blow.

"That would account for why we found no residual glass fragments." Heero muttered dryly. He and Wufei had assumed themselves to be dealing with a particularly clever crook who had taken the precaution of clearing all possible evidence. "So you went away leaving a broken pane of glass in the door, and the key in the lock." He said in a controlled monotone.

"Er, yeah." Duo replied, shuffling his feet nervously. "I guess that was a pretty dumb thing to do huh?" He added.

"Well, it was not the smartest thing you could have done." Heero said with exaggerated patience.

After ascertaining that everything on the lower floor of the house was present, correct and undisturbed, he led Duo upstairs to the bedroom, stepping carefully around a large black cat that sat on the bottom step, staring balefully at him and steadfastly refusing to give way. At the door to the bedroom he paused and turned to Duo.

"Mr Maxwell, prepare yourself for a shock." He said gently. "Just take your time, have a look around and tell me if there is anything missing." He then led the way into the room. Duo looked around, stepping deftly between the items strewn around the floor, a frown of confusion on his brow. "Just take you time," Heero repeated, "There's no rush."

"Well actually," Duo said as he righted a drawer, grubby with the silver dust of fingerprinting powder, and replaced it onto its runners in the chest, "Everything looks pretty much as I left it." The braided young man continued his explanation as he went around the room straightening things up and replacing items into drawers and onto shelves. "I left in a rush you know, and I had to pack in a hurry. I could have picked the place up a little before I left I guess, but I wasn't exactly expecting guests." He gave an embarrassed laugh.

Heero gazed out of the bedroom window as digested these words, and his attention was arrested by a man across the street, a tallish man wearing a darkish cap, a bluish shirt and carrying a largish bag as he made his slow, leisurely way along the street calling from house to house as he delivered the mornings mail. With a smile of dawning realisation Heero drew his attention back to Duo Maxwell who was looking expectantly at him with a bundle of underwear in his arms. Without a word Heero strode past him out of the room, down the stairs and stopped at the hall console table where Hilde Schbeiker had been placing Duo's mail whenever she came in to feed the cat.

Taking up the bundle of letters he riffled through the various envelopes until he found what he sought. He had seen it before, on the day Officer Chang and he had responded to Ms Schbeiker's call, but had failed to realise its significance because the confounded girl's powers of observation had been so poor. What he had found was a small card from the local postal service stating that an attempt had been made to deliver a package and advising that the package had been left 'in the greenhouse round the back'. This last piece of information had been added to the card in a longhand scrawl. Heero nodded sagely. A man carrying a bag standing first at the front door, stooping to peer through the letterbox, then walking round to the back of the house. He chuckled softly and turned as he heard the tread of steps behind him. Duo Maxwell had descended the stairs and stood beside his cat, his fingers buried in the animal's thick fur.

"Are you mad at me for wasting your time Officer Yuy?" He asked apprehensively. "I could make it up to you, do some volunteer work or community service or something." He said, and chewed his bottom lip.

Heero's eyes slipped closed briefly. '_Carpe diem'_ he thought. He opened them once more, took a deep breath and spoke.

"Yes, you can make it up to me," He said in an even voice, "But community service will not be necessary. You can buy me a drink instead. I'll pick you up at eight this evening." Heero turned, walked to the front door and paused, waiting for the expected rebuttal. It never came. Instead Maxwell said,

"Okay, but where are you taking my mail?" As he stared at the bundle of letters in Heero's hand.

_(Inspired by a story by Colin Dexter)_

11


End file.
